How on earth did Terry Gilliam get from "Time Bandits" to "Brazil"?

[crispini]

I'm watching Terry Gilliam's films in order at the moment, and the thematic and stylistic gap between "Jabberwocky" and "Time Bandits" and then "Brazil" completely floors me. The first two films clearly had a lot in common in terms of his interests and themes -- the medieval / history ideas, the sense of humor, the sort of Python-esque feel. And some of those things do carry over to his later films -- the rich, almost baroque visuals, the interest in detail and the very layered look. But the sense of humor has gone from almost slapstick to dark. The ideas are straight out of 1984 and start to move towards an almost Pynchon-esque sense of the paranoid (which is justifiably so in his universe!) And the end is just so bleak and painfully honest: there is no hope.

What on earth happened to Gilliam to influence "Brazil" to go off in such a different direction? Amazing!

[Deja Q]

1. By the time 1985 occurred, cynicism was the newest fad

[NewJeffCT]

2. A lot changed in the world between 1981 & 1985

Four years of Reagan & Reaganomics in the US and Thatcherism had been in effect for six years by that time.

[sasquatch]

3. Yet most of the Boomers still loved Reaganomics

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

8. That's a generalization

imho, that isn't accurate......... :shrug:

[sasquatch]

12. Oh yeah I forgot, it was space aliens that voted for him and his policies at every turn

:eyes:

[Serial Mom]

15. Don't generalize & blame one group such as the boomers for this mess....

It was those who were prospering in the country - those younger than us too - the DINKS & the Yuppies that wanted and had to have / buy anything and everything (the supply and demand of raygun) - there were many people of all age groups that were self-abosrbed and greedy - those were who voted for raygun and adored him!

And it certainly wasn't "this boomer"!!

[PassingFair]

4. There's a TON of interesting back story info on "Brazil"

Google it, and you'll be reading for hours....

Let's just say that the studio didn't make it
EASY on Mr. Gilliam.

[crispini]

6. Interestingly enough, I've been reading a bunch of interviews with Gilliam

and in one of them he says that he wanted to do "Brazil" *before* "Time Bandits" but he couldn't get funding so he decided to this "fun for all the family" kind of film first.

Which tells me, interestingly enough, that the whole "dark side" of TG was there all along and just unexpressed in his earlier stuff.

[hippywife]

5. I'm thinking things were getting

a little more Orwellian at the time.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. It doesn't seem such a different outlook to me

Remembering that 'Time Bandits' was made for children, so that a bleak ending wouldn't be a good idea, I'd say the humour in the 2 is pretty similar. There's a fair amount of 'slapstick' in 'Brazil' too - the tubes, the hero's mother and her plastic surgery; and the Devil in 'Time Bandits' is keen on 'technology' for how to control people (there are aspects of 'Brave New World' in both, as well as '1984').

[MissMillie]

9. by being versatile, I suppose

Remember, Sean Penn started out as Spiccoli....

[gmoney]

10. Brazil was just amazing... I got to see it in a theatre even...

The scale of some of those shots is just awesome.

I love the sort of retro-tech of the place, too. Vacuum tubes and typewriters as computer keyboards and everything.

Just everything about it works.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

11. You might have missed the missing link

Between Time Bandits and Brazil, Gilliam directed the short, "The Crimson Permanent Assurance", that begins the Terry Jones-directed Monty Python and the Meaning of Life (1983). It doesn't really come up as part of Gilliam's filmography as it's part of a Jones-directed film, but I think it makes the progression from Time Bandits to Brazil pretty painfully obvious.

Here's Part One of the CPA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX61PUZ3xkI

[Fire Walk With Me]

13. Dreamer as child, dreamer as adult, and with Baron Munchausen

dreamer as old man (with fits of dreamer as adult).

Interesting, the effects of dreaming, upon each age group.

[AllenVanAllen]

14. What a huge difference between those movies

Although I liked Brazil, it's not my favorite of Gilliam films, that goes to The Adventures of Barron Munchausen
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096764/
I've gotta' watch that again.

[Serial Mom]

16. A great movie - with a lot of foresight ! I love it! n/t